Weed-wacked: Osgood Landing cannabis proposal goes up in smoke

The zoning bylaw needed to advance the project failed to get a two-thirds majority it needed.

Bryan McGonigle bmcgonigle@wickedlocal.com @GtownRecord

The former home of Western Electric will not be growing cannabis any time soon.

Town Meeting struck down a proposal that would have allowed a million-square-feet medical marijuana cultivation facility at Osgood Landing. After about an hour and a half of debate, the proposal garnered a majority of the vote – 535 in favor, 385 against -- but at 58 percent failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.

Voters also approved a moratorium on recreational marijuana establishments and, in fact, extended the moratorium until November 2018.

"The moratorium will allow the town sufficient time in creating zoning, bylaws, regulating the location of recreational marijuana establishments and retailers," Town Manager Andrew Maylor said in introducing the moratorium article.

Originally, Article 12 sought a moratorium until June 30, 2018, and Town Meeting next May could determine the best course of action – either permanent regulations or outright ban in town. But then resident Eitan Goldberg stepped up to the mic and proposed a longer delay.

"It just seems if the regulations are going to be passed in March, it’s ambitious to really get regulations in place for the warrant and then for Town Meeting shortly thereafter," Goldberg said.

That amendment, and the article, passed.

Then came Article 10, which authorized the town manager and selectmen to negotiate a host agreement with a medical marijuana business at Osgood Landing (provided that proposal passed at Town Meeting).

Selectmen Chairman Richard Vaillancourt motioned asking the petitioner, Tom Lee (who represents Ozzy Properties), to withdraw the motion since the town manager and selectmen already have that authority. Lee obliged.

So then it was on to Articles 9 and 11, which sought to extend the town’s medical marijuana zone to include Osgood Landing.

‘Back to the future’

Proponents called for the town to embrace the tax revenue, job growth and cutting-edge medical technology the project promised.

"The owners are looking to take their building back to the future and bring burgeoning industry back to 1600 Osgood St.," Lee said in pushing for the project. "The Osgood Landing biotechnology campus will be a world-class cannabis research and development center cultivating cannabis for medical use, medical and regulatory R&D and manufacturing."

"An entire industry is on the verge of doing some very good things, and I want that industry here in North Andover," resident Dan Leary said.

Jim Xenakis, local business owner and former selectman, spoke out in favor of passing the articles with a more libertarian perspective.

"This is their land. They own it. How would you like it if someone told you what to do in your own living room?" Xenakis asked. "You don’t have to like the product to be in favor of it."

The Board of Selectmen voted in favor of the project, 3-2, with Selectmen Chris Nobile, Regina Kean and Phil DeCologero supporting it.

"I would like to see bio-pharma research on this site," Kean said. She added approving the warrant articles would not mean voting for the project but rather voting for the applicant to start the long approval and permitting process.

"This is the beginning of a process," Nobile agreed. "And I have faith in the process and the steps involved here, and most simply, I want the discussion to be educated and I believe there’s been a lot of work and response on that."

One of the most heart-felt pleas for the project came not from a politician but a patient.

"Respectfully, when I hear somebody say, ‘What’s the rush?’, I’m the rush," Jessica Flanagan, who has progressive lups said. "Opioid treatment does not touch my pain. I’ve tried it. Medical marijuana will help people like me. I’m 41 yrs old, and my life has been ended because of chronic illness. If I can get back functionality, mobility… medical marijuana is my only hope. Medical marijuana will keep me out of hospice when the time comes. It is real. It is not getting high and lighting up. It is the part of the plant that helps those in need."

‘We are not ready’

Opponents of the Osgood project cited a litany of concerns about the project, including water usage and a lack of a solid plan.

The Planning Board voted unanimously to oppose the project. Planning Board Chairman John Simons mentioned the potential for odors from a cannabis growing facility as well as the scope of the proposed project – at more than 1 million square feet.

"We want to study this a little more. We want to research it a little more. It’s not ready yet," Simons insisted. "The financial benefits associated with this we think are grossly overstated. They’re going to come much later than people anticipate."

Vaillancourt agreed, saying there hadn’t been enough research given to the idea since the property owners waited until February to bring it before the town.

"Realistically, I know that Western Electric, AT&T, Lucent or any other high-tech manufacturing will not be moving into that campus any time soon, and therefore cannabis is the new reality we have before us," Vaillancourt conceded. "My concern, however, is that this article has not been through the due diligence it requires.

Indeed, giving the project more time seemed to be the ongoing theme of opposition.

"There’s a reason the state has allowed for a moratorium – because they realize we are not ready," Selectman Rosemary Smedile said. "The federal government isn’t ready, the state is not ready, the town is not ready, and frankly the applicant isn’t ready."

School Committee Chairman David Torrisi, who is an attorney and works with medical marijuana businesses, also spoke out against the Osgood proposal, raising suspicion about the true long-term intent of it.

"The campaign that has been run to me is not about medical marijuana – Medical marijuana dispensaries do not require a million square feet of cultivation space," Torrisi said. "So I think we have to ask, what’s the long term play here? Recreational wholesaler?"

About that water…

A major concern among voters was water – precisely, how much would the facility use and where would it get it?

"We had a drought this year," North Andover Historical Commission Chairman Kathleen Szyska said. "And it wasn’t a very severe one, but if anyone has driven around Lake Cochichewick, it had a beach. It had a circle. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I think maybe twice in my 67 years have I seen a beach around Lake Cochichewick."

Estimates of how much water a million-square-feet growing facility would use vary – with some estimates in the hundreds of gallons a day, but proponents say the water would come from ground water through wells already established at the site.

And there were questions about both water usage and disposal.

Frank Lilly, the consultant who developed an environmental site plan for the Osgood project, had a simple answer.

"Your town water’s just not clean enough, with the fluoride and whatever," Lilly said.